With Memorial Day coming up quickly, I wanted to be sure to get our Beach Essentials Giveaway out there early in the week (remember to keep entering!), so I saved my weekend update for today.  And don’t worry, because I received several questions related to our Pinterest Party that I mentioned in the newsletter last Friday, I’ve been certain to spend extra time on that fiesta, because it was a blast.  (Scroll to the bottom if you’d like to fast forward to that portion.)

Friday

Ray was actually out of town for the front half of the weekend, as were a huge group of my friends, so I decided to proactively sit at home and get some of the rest my body desperately needed.  I went on a 5k run/walk around Denver, but the highlight of my evening was spending several hours on our balcony reading solo.  It’s been a long time since I allowed myself to sit in silence, and I loved taking the time to relax and rejuvenate.

Saturday

After waking up before my alarm and spending a little time cleaning up our place before Ray got home from his work trip, I went to the gym for an awesome workout for over an hour.  I’ll spend more time on this tomorrow (Workout Wednesday), but I used to be one of the people that loved taking my time and spending a good 90 minutes/day at the gym.  With the advent of starting my own business, that time has been cut down to about 1/3.  I have no idea what’s going to stick longer term, but taking the full time to get a full workout in was great… and difficult!

In the afternoon, I went to meet up with an old friend from Cincinnati and her best friend.  Neither of them live here – they had just decided to meet up halfway between them.  I love that they were so willing to just get out and explore a new city and experience time together. 🙂

(Side-note: How am I just now noticing the guy in the cropped pants behind us.  Touché.  Well done, sir.)

Sunday

Strangely enough, this was my biggest day of the weekend…

Ray and I woke up early and cruised over to Boulder to get a quick hike in before the mid-day sun.  For those familiar with the area, we hiked to the top of 1 & 2 of the Flatirons in Chautauqua.  Being relatively familiar with the trail, we made it up and back to our car in about two hours with plenty of time for us to get home and for me to get ready for the Pinterest Party at 10:30am.  (Phew, that sounds early just saying it!)

…And now to the Pinterest goodness… A while back, a good friend out here in Denver invited me to an event where she said that we all should bring something off of Pinterest.  Whether it was a recipe that we made in advance, craft that we were intending the group to make there, or any other variety of related activity, that was completely up to our discretion.  Though I think what ended up working out best was that it ended up being somewhat of a Potluck with a bunch of new recipes that everyone was trying for the first time.  Tracey, the host of the party, also had awards lined up where all of the attendees were able to vote on a variety of categories with “white elephant” type gifts handed out to the award winners.

The awards available across the day.

Overall, while I loved trying new dishes, I think that my favorite part was that it was a great ice breaker for the whole group to get to know more about one another.  For example, I ended up speaking extensively to another girl that made a healthy version of chocolate chip muffins (created with banana instead… DELICIOUS!)   My recipe was a 100-calorie egg/veggie quiche (coming to the blog this week), so the healthy recipe people instantly had something in common!

In retrospect, maybe I should have voted for the Bloody Mary Bar for most scrumptious.  Because, as you can see below, I was all in.

For those curious, the top dish of the evening, by almost unanimous vote, was a carrot cake swirl pinwheel.  Essentially, the frosting was spiraled into the carrot cake – it’s in the bottom left corner of the picture below.  Needless to say, it was delicious.

The entire party was a blast and we’re already planned our next get togethers, such as getting a potential chocolate and wine tasting in the books.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Do you have any recipes that are favorites off of Pinterest?

Create a great life!